This is a proposal to plan a national working conference on establishing a research agenda on black women's health. The conference will pull Together a highly select group of medical doctors, nurses, researchers, academicians, organizational leaders, church leaders, health practitioners, counselors, social workers, media specialists and hospital administrators from different geographical areas to analyze, discuss, and develop strategies for effective research on black women's health. Specifically, we propose to: convene a two day conference in either Newark, New Jersey or Washington, D.C.; invite eighteen experts in their field, to develop effectiveness research papers on heart disease/stroke and diabetes in black women; prepare for publication the conference papers -- which will be a major research document representing the best in the field. According to the Task Force on Minority Health, the disparity in the death rate between blacks and whites is a compelling reason to focus attention on health effectiveness research. This conference is important and significant because black women are disproportionately affected by disease and illness in America, and if we are to reach any of the goals set forth in Healthy People 2000, we must design research which is culturally, race, gender and class specific.